Chicago Crix Laud ‘Goodfellas’

“Goodfellas” raked in the most nominations for awards for the third annual Chicago Film Critics Assn. ceremony, to be held March 7 at the Pump Room of the Omni Ambassador East Hotel.

Martin Scorsese’s gangster saga will be considered for Chicago Flame awards in seven categories including best picture, director, screenplay, actor and cinematography.

“Dances With Wolves” was runnerup with four nominations: best picture, director, cinematography and screenplay. “The Godfather Part III” was the only other film with multiple nominations, for cinematography and supporting actor.

Joan Cusack landed two nominations, for best supporting actress and most promising actress in “Men Don’t Leave,” as did Kathy Bates, slated for best actress and most promising actress in “Misery.”

The CFCA created two new categories this year: best cinematography and best screenplay. Two of its 11 categories, most promising actor and actress, do not exist in the annual awards of New York and Los Angeles film critics. Those groups named “Goodfellas” best film of 1990.

More than 40 local critics were polled this year. Only three have publicly declined to participate in the awards: Gene Siskel and Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times.

CFCA executive director Sue Kiner said support for the Chicago awards has increased among film studios and corporate sponsors. This year, studios for the first time provided Chicago critics with screenings of films to be released after the association’s Dec. 21 voting deadline.

Big winner at last year’s ceremony was Spike Lee, whose “Do The Right Thing” won best picture, director and supporting actor. However, his most recent effort, “Mo’ Better Blues,” does not appear among the nominees for 1990.

The complete list of nominations follows:

Best picture: “Dances With Wolves”; “Goodfellas”; “To Sleep With Anger”

Best foreign film: “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover”; “Cyrano de Bergerac”; “Dreams”